Knudson, Albert Cornelius
KNUDSON, ALBERT CORNELIUS
Methodist minister, Old Testament scholar and theologian, known especially for his synthesis of personalistic philosophy with a systematic Christian theology; b. Grandmeadow, Minn., Jan. 23, 1873; d. Aug. 28, 1953. He was the son of Rev. Asle Knudson, and he studied at the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis (A.B. 1893); Boston University, Mass. (S.T.B. 1896, Ph.D. 1900); and the German Universities of Jena and Berlin (honorary Th.D. 1923). After teaching briefly at the Universities of Denver, Colo., and Baker, Baldwin City, Ks, and at Allegheny College, Meadville, Pa., he began his long career in Boston University School of Theology as professor of Hebrew and Old Testament exegesis (1906). From 1921 to 1943 he was professor of systematic theology and served also as dean from 1926 to 1938.
In theology, he defended an independently valid religious a priori, alongside Immanuel Kant's speculative, ethical, and aesthetic a prioris. He developed his theological system in deliberate relation to the theologies of Friedrich schleiermacher and Albrecht ritschl, on the one hand, and the personalistic philosophy of Borden Parker Bowne, on the other (see personalism). His books included Religious Teaching of the Old Testament (New York 1918), The Doctrine of God (New York 1930), The Doctrine of Redemption (New York 1933), and The Validity of Religious Experience (New York 1937).
[l. h. de wolf]